Time to Talk

Book excerpt: Time to Talk provides a powerful and accessible resource for practitioners to help develop their own skills, as well as supporting a whole-school or setting approach to speaking and listening. Written by the government’s former Communication Champion for children, it showcases and celebrates effective approaches in schools and settings across the country. Jean Gross helpfully summarises research on what helps children and young people develop good language and communication skills, and highlights the importance of key factors: a place to talk, a reason to talk and support for talk. This practical and engaging book also provides: whole-class approaches to developing all children and young people’s speaking and listening skills; ‘catch-up’ strategies for those with limited language ways in which settings and schools can develop an effective partnership with specialists, such as speech and language therapists, to help children with more severe needs; examples of good practice in supporting parents/carers to develop their children’s language skills; answers to practitioners’ most frequently asked questions about speech and language. This book is for all school leaders, teachers and Early Years practitioners concerned about the growing number of children and young people with limited language and communication skills.